How HR Leaders Change the World reaches its 250th episode with Lloyds Banking Group's
Sharon Doherty
London, 11 August 2026
How HR Leaders Change the World, the podcast from social enterprise Uplifting People, celebrates its 250th episode with a conversation featuring Sharon Doherty, Chief People and Places Officer at Lloyds Banking Group.
Hosted by Cecilia Crossley, founder of Uplifting People, the podcast explores how HR leaders use their influence to drive positive change, for their people, their businesses, and the world beyond them.
Episode 250 traces Sharon’s three-decade career across construction, telecoms and financial services, and the moments she counts as her biggest impact.
Sharon brings Lloyds Banking Group’s commitment to young people to life by focusing on the practical ways the Group is helping them build confidence, skills and routes into work. The Group expects to have helped more than 400,000 young people between 2021 and 2026 through work, work experience or training, including weekend financial education days in Lloyds buildings across the UK, from Halifax and Leeds to Bristol, Birmingham and London.
Sharon is passionate about improving social mobility and expanding opportunities for people from all backgrounds. On the podcast, she spoke about how through Project Hope, Lloyds Banking Group is helping young people leaving social care move into good careers, with support that reflects the realities of starting work, from more frequent pay to mentoring and workplace guidance. Her view is that small, thoughtful interventions can be the difference between someone getting a chance and someone being left behind.
She also sees AI as a defining responsibility for HR. With 10,000 Lloyds employees currently beta testing AI tools for customers, Sharon’s focus is on how organisations help people engage with new technology confidently and fairly, so that innovation supports opportunity rather than leaving people behind.
“We need to make sure AI creates opportunities not just for companies and shareholders, but for our people too. Being human is probably more important than ever, so we need to give people confidence that there's a real space for them, and a real sense of agency, as we figure this out together.” Sharon Doherty, Chief People and Places Officer, Lloyds Banking Group.
During the conversation, Cecilia shared the model behind Uplifting People itself: supercharging the power of HR and donating 100% of profit to uplift vulnerable children around the world.
“There are 3.5 billion employees in the world; HR designs the systems that motivate, educate and hold to account 3.5 billion people – an enormous yet underserved lever that can help solve the world’s biggest problems.” Cecilia Crossley, founder, Uplifting People
Cecilia and Sharon will both speak at Unleash World in Paris this October.
Episode 250 of How HR Leaders Change the World is available now wherever you get your
podcasts.
About Uplifting People
Uplifting People helps companies give truly meaningful gifts at the moments that quietly decide whether someone stays at an organisation - from a new joiner's first day to a colleague's return from parental leave and other key milestones throughout their career. Every hire deserves a warm welcome. Every child deserves to be safe, loved and learning. One gift does both: 100% of our profit funds vulnerable children around the world, and so far, that's over $1m donated and 46,000 children supported.
About Lloyds Banking Group
With 28 million customers, we’re proud to be the UK’s biggest digital bank. Our services span retail and commercial banking, insurance and long-term savings, delivered through trusted brands including Lloyds, Halifax, Bank of Scotland and Scottish Widows.
Our purpose is Helping Britain Prosper. For more than 320 years, we’ve served households and businesses across the UK. Today, we’re transforming how we do that. We’ve invested more than £4bn in our digital transformation, and we’re just getting started. That means building smarter, more resilient tech, expanding our use of AI, and creating seamless experiences for a digital-first Britain.
Media contact
Heidi Bryant – Chief Marketing Officer
heidi@upliftingpeople.com
www.upliftingpeople.com
Phone: 07379-431619